Review of Dissertations and theses from start to finish: Psychology and related fields, second edition.

Abstract

Dissertations and Theses From Start to Finish: Psychology and Related Fields, Second Edition, by John D. Cone and Sharon L. Foster. APA Books, 2006, 375 pages (ISBN: 978-1-59147-362-6, CA$29.95 Softcover) Reviewed by LESLIE S. PHILLMORE DOI : 10.1037/0708-5591.49.1.74 Dissertations and Theses From Start to Finish is an easy-to-read reference manual for graduate students considering, beginning, in the midst of, or completing their masters or doctoral degree. Written by experienced professors John D. Cone and Sharon Foster of Alliant International University in California, this book provides guidance for all stages of producing a thesis (Masters level) or dissertation (PhD level), from deciding whether you have what it takes to complete the process to producing a presentable and publishable finished product for a conference or journal. Chapters are arranged chronologically according to progression through a graduate degree. The first piece of good advice in the book recommends that students not read the entire book at once, but rather read each chapter as they encounter that stage of their project. Indeed, what graduate student would have to sit down and read an entire book about doing a thesis or dissertation in one sitting? To facilitate this, each chapter is written so it may be read independently as needed, complete with supplemental reading for further information. An excellent feature at the end of each chapter is the checklist, which summarises the main points of the chapter in workbook style so students may actively assess what suggestions highlighted in the chapter have been completed with respect to their project. This helps break down the long-term and often overwhelming prospect of completing a degree into steps the student can use to get each stage of the process done. The authors inject supervisorly advice throughout the book, and even provide answers to common excuses for procrastination. The first few chapters deal with general preparation for and expectations about what will happen during the lengthy process of completing a graduate degree, including what to expect from a supervisor (termed chairman in the book) and committee members. The authors then move on to chapters about preparation of the proposal and literature review, ethics considerations, and data collection. Particularly well written is the chapter on selecting statistics, a topic often not well-understood by beginning graduate students, which includes a flowchart to aid in decision making. Also well written are the chapters on writing the results section, a style completely different to what the student may have been used to in other areas of study, and writing the discussion. Finally, the book includes a chapter about what to expect during a defense (probably the most anxiety-provoking stage of the process), and a chapter on the preparation of research for presentation at a conference and submission to a journal. There are a number of criticisms one could make about the book. There is a definite bias toward human research: any mention of animal research specifically is minimal. For example, the chapter on research ethics has only one small paragraph discussing issues particular to animal research, and the chapter on measurement focuses on the use of scales and the validity of those measures as applied to human participants and does not discuss any issues that apply only to collecting data from animals in particular, such as physiological condition, effects of procedures, or use of particular control groups. The authors also show bias in how data is presented, clearly preferring tables to figures, saying the latter are more difficult to prepare, costing more time and more money. This is perhaps a convention used in some human research, but in my experience a visual representation of data, compared to a dense presentation of numbers, provides superior clarity. As far as ease of preparation, graphing programs are readily available at universities, often on a computer in your lab or as a download from computing services for use on students own computers. …